1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to vehicle covers that can be rapidly extracted from a storage compartment and applied to protect the body of a vehicle and rapidly retracted into the storage compartment using a power assisted system.
Automobile and other vehicle covers are commonly used for protection against the harmful effects of sun, dust, dirt, smog, rain, snow, hail, acid rain and other deleterious atmospheric elements. Manual protective covers are commonly stored in the truck or other areas of vehicles. Significant shortcomings of the manual covers are the inconvenience of application and time needed to remove them from storage and apply them. The disadvantages of manual vehicle covers are overcome by the remote control power-assisted vehicle cover invention described within. The vehicle protection system invention described here has as its primary advantage over manual covers the element of convenience and speedy application. The protective cover system is self-contained, needing no storage and is always readily available. The cover can be applied or taken off the vehicle is less than one minute. Because of the speed of application, the cover system tends to be used more frequently, thus providing a natural theft deterrent as well.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A review of the prior art has revealed a number of automatic or semi-automatic vehicle covers dating back to the nineteen twenties. Several of these teach fabric covers which are stored on rollers and mount on one end of the vehicle. Some more recent inventions teach covers that are automatically extended over the body of the vehicle and retracted on rollers into storage compartments. Most of the inventions of automatic or semi-automatic vehicle covering systems described in the reviewed patents are complex in nature. They have elaborate or intricate mechanisms which are consequently expensive to build and their embodiments are cumbersome to use. Many also, incorporate permanent fixtures, guides and brackets that mount on the exterior surface of the vehicle, thus deteriorating the esthetics of the vehicle.